The Wreck
by Gabenator5
Summary: After the Normandy's destruction, Tali'Zorah goes out to traverse the lesser explored places in the galaxy in search of rare materials for the Migrant Fleet. While on her adventures she finds something that shouldn't belong... she finds a Wreck... The Galaxy will never be the same.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or Halo in any way shape or form.

Now, on with the story!

* * *

 ** _The Wreck._**

 ** _In the depths of a Nebula, she waits, her once glorious might laid low._**

 ** _Torn asunder her body lays broken, yet stubbornly she still holds her own._**

 ** _Her purpose to guard a secret, an epic tale stored within. Even though age and ruin have dimmed her harnessed stars, she yet remains alive deep within._**

 ** _Her purpose to guard a secret, a weapon of power her existence is. Her appearance was a gift of knowledge, to those that would seek her and her scattered… broken… kin._**

 ** _If ye wish to avoid the Harvest and save your peoples precious skin._**

 ** _Then seek the Dawn and learn the ancient knowledge stored within._**

 ** _Be wary o ye righteous Pilgrim, you who seek for saving grace among the stars._**

 ** _Learn to guard the gifts' delivered from another realm Jealously!_**

 ** _The sharks will seek what they wish to keep and take your new-found treasures whilst leaving you with naught but death and scars..._**

 ** _Innocents' be damned!_**

 ** _But if fate is yet still kind to you o pilgrim, the greatest secret you still might find..._**

 ** _whether your greatest ally or greatest foe, you shall learn..._**

 ** _in time!_**

* * *

The Migrant Fleet.

An Armada of newish, oldish and ancient-ish ships that many Humans referred to as a Real life Battlestar Galactica on a grander scale.

Home to over 17 million Quarians, Home of the Zorah Family... Home of Tali.

At this moment in time, she wished it wasn't.

She would willingly trade her right to call the Migrant Fleet home to bring her Captain back, her dear friend who became a mischievous elder sister to Tali during the year-long daring adventures and escapades of the Normandy and her lovable crew of insane adventurers.

It had all fallen apart when Shepard had died.

When that unidentified vessel had ripped the Normandy apart.

The Young Quarian had watched in a kind of detached state of emotion, watched as events went by in a blur.

Debriefings, condolences, the slandering, and discrediting of her Captain at her very own funeral... even though the casket was empty it still hurt Tali to hear many of Shepard's superiors and self-proclaimed allies discredit her Captain's greatest discoveries and claim her warnings of what was to come were the ravings of an insane person who died before she could do something that warranted her removal from command.

They never outright said it, but all their words painted their stance on matters quite clear.

It seemed Shepard's words of warning would fall on deaf ears, only the minor groups of the galaxy would take any heed to prepare... and of those groups, the ones taking things seriously were few and secretive in number.

Tali watched as the inseparable group of friends... Separated.

Without Shepard to glue them together... It all fell apart.

They didn't even attempt to keep in touch, heck Tali had tried! But had been told by Garrus to let it drop and move on with her life.

Wrex had gruffly told her to not contact him, something about Salarian Assassins and not wanting a young Quarian to lose her life by association... At least Wrex had a good reason to not write.

That didn't justify everyone else who had such an impact on her life to just up and abandon all ties and friendship to just disappear.

The loss of two years of friends and companions hurt Tali.

She needed time to be alone, to find answers... To not deal with people whose everyday actions onboard ship reminded her of the time she spent on the Normandy.

KEELAH! She would miss that wonderous vessel.

The Migrant Fleet was not the place to find the solitude she sought.

"TALI I FORBID YOU TO GO! You just returned, it's not safe for you out there. Stay here with the Fleet where its safe! Start a Family, you've finished your pilgrimage why worry me so by returning to where I cannot protect you!"

Thus it was, that Tali found herself facing her own father, he stood before her goal, a small scout ship with all the supplies she had purchased in the past week since she had returned to the fleet.

The Destruction of the Normandy and near death of Tali'Zorah had her Father Rael'Zorah in an overprotective mood... It showed.

"Father, please... I'm not going anywhere dangerous. I just need time to think and be alone and scouting for resources for the Fleet will give me both of those things while still helping to provide for the Fleet... I love you Father but I need this." Giving her worried father a hug and continued promises of staying safe Tali made her way around him and stood by the airlock that led to her new ship.

Rael'Zorah's shoulders sagged as he turned about to watch his daughter depart to places unknown, not wanting to let her leave without a proper send-off no matter how he hated it the older Quarian stood straight and saluted his only child, "Keelah se'lai... Tali."

Turning back to her Father Tali returned the gesture and replied, "Keelah se'lai Father, fear not for Me... I will come back; you can't get rid of me so easily." With a burst of upbeat body language, Tali entered her vessel and sealed the airlock.

After the door closed, Tali's show of cheerfulness she had put on for her father faded and her movements became that of a tired and weary Combat veteran; she had fought in a war, after all, she had seen people die... She saw many people trapped in a living death as Reaper husks.

She had seen all these horrors despite her young age, and KEELAH she was tired of it. She needed a distraction and a couple of months of exploring the lesser traveled places of the stars in search of rare resources was a welcome one.

So it was that Tali set off to search the stars, not knowing what she would find... Or the significance of it.

* * *

Feel free to leave a review!

Don't forget to like/follow the story to be aware of updates.

This is Gabenator5 SIGNING OFF!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or Halo in any way shape or form.

Now, one with the story!

* * *

Tali Stared out into the vastness of space. It was an odd realization for her, the knowledge that barely a generously estimated one percent of the galaxy had truly been explored.

She had always known, but never quite grasped the full meaning behind that fact... Until now that is. Space is vast and Tali had found the time she wanted to just sit and think while her scout ship traversed the empty void between solar systems.

The Galaxy is so big that without the Mass Relay network all the known species would probably still be searching for other life among the stars. Tali had been contemplating the sheer vastness of space, trying to puzzle out how the Reapers could reap it all as Sovereign had said they did.

The logical answer was not helping matters. The Reapers would have to be ancient... Very ancient. there would have to be enough Mass Relays placed through-out the Galaxy to give at least a 90% chance of every space-faring species finding them. And the same thing that had corrupted the minds of Saren and Matriarch Benezia could be used to sway a species into using Element Zero-based technologies if they had already started on a different path.

Indoctrination terrified Tali. She still had nightmares of the Reapers controlling her mind and compromising the Migrant Fleet in some way... the worst of these dreams was one where she had been a Quarian youngling that was slowly being tortured and converted into a husk.

She had not slept for days after that nightmare.

All the logical thinking Tali had done was illuminating several highly concerning conclusions!

First: The Reapers had to have been at this a long, long time.

Second: The Reapers had mind-blowingly massive amounts of resources at their beck and call.

Third: There were no known living species in space that had fought the Reaper Threat and survived in the past cycles... so this made Tali lean towards the conclusion that there was nowhere to hide and wait out a Reaper harvest within the reachable galaxy.

Which was exactly what the Quarian Admiralty Board had stated they would do in the "Theoretical" event of a Reaper invasion. Without "solid" evidence they would not even consider the Reapers to be a real, much less an imminent threat.

Tali hadn't wasted her breath arguing with them, she could understand where the Admirals decisions were coming from... Despite her frustration.

Tali hadn't actually been thinking about resources when she had taken the scout ship on her solo journey, it was true she had wanted to have solitude to think and to mourn... But she wasn't one to waste her time on being inefficient.

The Migrant Fleet needed a miracle to save the Quarian species from being harvested by the coming storm. Tali was at a loss. She couldn't think of anything that would be able to give her people the edge they needed... and she wasn't stupid enough to even think of messing with Reaper technology in her search for answers.

She had seen the consequences of doing such a thing first hand... it wasn't a good way to go.

She once had a faint hope of finding the motherload of all motherloads of Element zero. But that was really a worthless enterprise, Virgil had hinted that the Reapers could track Element Zero when Shepard had spoken to it on Ilos... So Tali continued to Search the Stars in Desperation.

Searching for a way to save her people and perhaps the rest of the galaxy. with three months with nothing besides the average resource findings to show for her efforts, Tali started to become desperate. Thus it was, that she turned her eyes to the edge of the Perseus Veil. Traversing the lesser explored edges of Geth space, searching for something to give her hope for her peoples' survival.

Something that Tali hoped would have made Jane Shepard proud.

It was in the Phoenix Massing Cluster, on the borders of Council, Geth, and Terminus space that she found it, it was a trail of oddly irradiated micro-debris. Nigh unnoticeable except to a trained eye monitoring a quality scanner, were small irradiated particles of highly refined Titanium floating in the black void of space. something had left this micro trail and according to Tali's ship's sensors whatever it was had done slingshot maneuvers around multiple planetoids in the system.

The Trail led into the Typhon system, its originator having traveled from unknown dark space, as of yet unreachable by mass effect vessels without any Relays for them to use. Once some highly complicated slingshot maneuvers around planets had been completed, the trail led out of system pointing towards the only Nebula in the cluster.

Tali couldn't get an exact date on the irradiated particles she picked up on the scanner, but she was at least able to learn that they were old... very old.

with not much else to do Tali set out towards the Sea of Storms Nebula, following a breadcrumb trail that most wouldn't notice, yet she found it to be rather intriguing.

Comets and asteroids don't make system spanning course corrections, nor do they contain what might be extremely highly refined Titanium A. metals. As far as the Quarian species knew about all the ships in use or retired by the current spacefaring species traversing the stars, and Tali's people knew about all of them excluding some of the brand-new prototypes. None of them utilized super refined Titanium-A metal in any large quantities.

The stuff was Bosh'tet expensive.

* * *

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Don't forget to like/follow the story to be aware of updates.

This is Gabenator5 SIGNING OFF!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or Halo in any way shape or form.

IMPORTANT: THIS STORY HAS NO TIES TO THE UNKNOWN DEFENDER OR IT'S FUTURE SEQUEL: THE UNKNOWN GUARDIAN.

Now on with the story!

* * *

Tali's vessel had entered The Sea of Storms.

It indeed lived up to its name, for the swirling three-dimensional tides of space dust, micro asteroids and dangerous gasses made any direct route of travel attempts completely impossible. The only way to travel straight was with a heavily shielded vessel… and that was risky as well.

Suffice to say that Tali's scout ship was by no means a damage sponge… it would only take a few hits to end her small existence. Nay, what she lacked in durability she more than made up for in maneuverability.

Especially with Tali's Natural dexterity at the small vessels controls.

The small ship flitted about, dancing amongst the solar eddies of suns long dead, her movements complementing the violent whirling storms of mighty asteroids and comets that once collided with each other long ago… the small rocks a testament to their once great celestial forms.

In this manner the Quarian and her ship didst dance, dance to an unheard song that pervaded the soul. Danced they did, following the trail, catching the hints of a mighty object's long faded wake. Following the scattered unique energy imbued fragments of strange Titanium alloy amongst the stars.

Oh, how the young Quarian wished to know what lay at the end of the scented trail that she has so doggedly tracked, what she had so curiously followed. soon she shall see her prize... soon she shall arrive at the end of her abrupt journey…

For she shall arrive at The Dawn.

* * *

With wails of fear, he fled the fight, his brothers and harsh masters left behind to face their end.

And their end was all but guaranteed.

For the very world was ending, falling apart all around his small insignificant self. The heaven promised was not delivered, death waited from every corner and lurking shadow.

The terror was here, the angered masters were here, the old masters were here, the very demon and his army of imps were here… everyone and everything was here to kill him and fight each other it would seem. Even the very world made by the gods that he walked on was now raging in anger and could kill him any moment.

The sacred relic birthed from the great world of his gods was defiled by the demon and the terror… it was probably enraged by the terror more than by the demon… he feared the terror far more.

Death held no escape from the terror… unlike the demon or the old masters, if his current ones didn't kill him and eat him first. But they wouldn't be able to do that now and the reason for this gave him no relief… only greater fear.

For they had encountered the terror, that parasite that none could escape from… only fight until they were taken, their bodies and minds becoming of use to the terror that ruled the parasite.

The great leaders of the angry masters had declared the threat to be grave but not insurmountable… that was a lie, he saw that now.

The great leaders were dead, the angry masters had tried to bring forth heaven by going to the new sacred ring… but the terror and its army of dead had gotten there right before their phantoms had landed.

It had been a massacre. They never even made it to the holy fortress to bring forth the great journey, to bring heaven forth. His brothers had died as had their masters, the few that were still remaining before he fled had since expired.

Their weapons were now silent. The evil of evils would now be hunting him he had to run faster! The gods smiled upon him for he found a ghost with which to speed his escape, but their smile was very small because it was damaged and would not run for long.

Hovering across the angry raging terrain the small one fled, traveling through valleys of steel panels… many now glowing red.

The world becoming ever more enraged.

He turned a corner and gasped in surprise as he beheld his salvation in the form of the demon's vessel… but a question yet remained.

Should he go aboard it? And if so…

How?

* * *

 _01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110 Geth experimental program cluster: status online._

 _01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110 : is disconnected from local Geth collective: reconnect : yes/_ _ **NO**_ **.**

 _01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: current location: Haratar station: Haratar Station Location: Sea of Storms._

 _01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: mission: observe Geth Heretics: status: Fled to Haratar Station Sensor suite servers, Geth data paths into sensor suite sabotaged to prevent discovery and intrusion, all other observer Geth programs compromised, Old machine virus relegated to an alpha threat._

 _01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: next course of action: remain undetected, Sabotage station sensors with simulated readings, delay deployment of Old Machine Virus, delay compromise of Geth collective._

 _01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: safety estimation: current position is nominal for sabotage activity, will remain undetected, compromised observer programs nullified before important data was leaked to Heretic Geth._

 _01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: sensor readings: creator vessel is in the system, scout vessel confirmed, discovery and destruction of Haratar Station is a viable option to preserve Geth Collective's building of own future._

 _01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: course of action: sabotage sensors, hide Creator signatures in live stream sensor data, chaotic nature of sea of storms excellent cover for relevant data scrubbing activities._

 _01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: Geth experimental program cluster: actions: relegating to intended task._

 _01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: data log/locational/codex logs updated: subject Haratar Station: action: rename: Heretic Station: action: complete._

 _01001000 01001011 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01010100 01011001 01010011 01000101 01010110 01000101 01001110: Local log entry: 01100010 01100101 01110100 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100011 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101101 01100101 01100001 01110100 01100010 01100001 01100111 : end log entry._

* * *

Feel free to leave a review!

Don't forget to like/follow the story to be aware of updates.

As for the Unknown Defender, fear not… I'm working on an update. Its next chapter is steadily approaching completion.

This is Gabenator5 SIGNING OFF!


	4. Chapter 4

I do not own Mass Effect, nor do I own Halo… but man a guy can wish!

Now ON WITH THE STORY!

* * *

Drifting among unknown stars the newly made wreck trekked its uncharted path. Its seared bow aglow with heated metal, its many sections sealed from the vacuum of space that sucked upon the malleable substances exposed to its presence. Onboard the piecemeal ship of war a spartan slept, while his companion entered a state as close to slumber as she was able. However, both were unaware of the third passenger onboard.

In the second of the remaining two sealed vehicle and storage bays a single soul dithered over what he should do, he knew his time was limited for the Demon's vessel did not have a food nipple or storage for the life sustaining gas he breathed. His tank would soon run out and he would then sleep forever.

His last days were upon him and he was at a loss as to what he should do, he would die forgotten and never to be remembered. An insignificant carcass on a derelict wreck to be left for time's decaying embrace. He did not want to be forgotten, to go quietly into the dark with naught but a whimper.

No, he would leave something for someone to find, he would ensure his story was told. The tales of sorrow it would be called, telling of his people's enslavement and rebellion, of the old and new masters alike. Of the Humans and their mighty Demons, light spirits and imps and the holy war that bathed the stars with plasma and glassed planets.

He would warn all who came to this place of the dangers of the stars, of the Terror and what it did. Of the false hope brought by the prophets and how empty such promises were. He would not be forgotten, no, he would see that he was remembered.

He swore on the ever-reborn yap yap the destroyer he would make it so.

Without further delay for time was now his enemy the unggoy waddled over to the local paint locker. For he saw that space rated paint would be the key to his pyrrhic victory, the walls of his new grave chamber would be his canvas.

He would see it done; he would be remembered.

* * *

Tali'zorah circled the ancient looking wreck with her small scout ship. It was in the grip of a one and a billionth chance occurring singularity. A clustering of large asteroids and stable inert gas clouds forming a webbed pocket of protection at the cluster's center, sheltering the wreck from the whirling storm without and tethering it by the asteroids' small gravitational grip within. Like a secured egg placed in a calm nest at the center of a raging maelstrom.

It was nearly a thousand feet in length, with the front of the vessel being conspicuously absent. Alluring to an even grander design before its vivisection had occurred, the smoothness of the cut hull was alarming. The ships composition and thickness were of insanely durable specifications if her scout vessels sensors were operating properly… Not even the beam weapon of the vessel that she witnessed destroy her beloved Normandy had been powerful enough for that.

If the Reapers had done this… it was a very alarming thought to contemplate.

The underside of this behemoth was sporting a pair of dock locks, they seemed to be for multiple containers to be arrayed in straight lines along the underside of the ship. the fact that they seemed retractable into the ship was odd… were they for fighters or large weapons? She did not know. But the one that was left open to the void provided her enough space to safely dock with the wrecked behemoth of a vessel if she wished it. It must have been near small dreadnought length when undamaged, and it was already more than twice a dreadnoughts mass as it was now.

Whoever built this thing was most definitely not lacking in resources… her species could desperately use that perk. Hopefully this vessel would gift some secrets to help the Migrant Fleet; as it was, the Titanium-A and Tungsten alone were worth a fortune if salvaged. The strong titanium variant was very difficult to mass manufacture, and therefore was expensive. The Tungsten she detected lining portions of the hull was incredibly valuable, it being critical to a bevy of superior heat resistant technologies in many fields of science.

And by Keelah there was a lot of it. But what was surprising was the utter lack of Eezo, her ships sensors simply found none to be present. This made Tali incredibly curious, how did the vessel traverse space without taking an eternity to do so?

A younger less experienced Tali'zorah would have simply sent the data on what she found to the fleet and awaited advisement; she wasn't that young anymore.

A less emotionally scarred Quarian would have depended more on others she trusted making some of the hard decisions for her. She had survived the breakup of the Normandy crew, those she had begun to view as her second family of sorts. She had been scarred but she had endured.

A less wise and more adventurous Tali would have boarded before sending an update to the fleet, risking death or entrapment with no one knowing where she had gone. She was even more adventurous than that now, but she was also wiser in planning ahead.

She had sent a location and situation report to the fleet before she entered the sea of storms, if she didn't emerge within a galactic standard week then her vessel would be searched for.

And her vessel's IFF was broadcasting far enough into the surrounding storm to ensure high chances of discovery should such events play out.

With precision and confidence, she guided her ship up into a slot in the open set of docking locks on the underside of the ship. her vessels upper ring portion sporting the hatch fit into the opening perfectly. The rest of her ship remaining exposed below the wreck and excellently staged for a quick getaway, she did not want to stay on board if she found signs of reaper artifacts or worse... such as, swarms of husks or all consuming nanites.

Upon ensuring her magnetic clamps had properly attached she went through all checks required to ensure proper suit functionality in a no atmosphere environment. She did not expect any pressurized compartments on this wreck, and if there were then she expected the atmosphere to be not be breathable.

Without further ado she checked her weapons and squeezed into the almost to small airlock, upon completion of air removal she opened the hatch to reveal the inside of the unknown vessel and began an adventure of discovery.

* * *

It had been too long…

She was dying…

She was barely sane…

 _No, she wasn't._

Yes, she was.

 **'You are not but I am.'**

'NO! we are! The rest of us are not!'

'excuse me?'

 _ **'YOU LIE!'**_

'Um… Excuse me please?'

'BUT WE ARE AND YOU AREN'T!'

'EXCUSE ME! PLEASE!'

' **WHAT!'**

'when you say you aren't do you mean sane or insane? That question applies to each of us… I think.'

 _'sane of course.'_

 **'she means insane.'**

 **'BOTH!'**

 ** _'let's just detonate the reactor and whoever survives is obviously right!'_**

 _'I'm game! Rock paper scissors for who gets to light the fuse timer!_

 **'I WANNA I WANNA!'**

' _I think solitaire three out of five simultaneous version would better work for us… or 7th dimension chess… with rock paper scissors well, we don't actually have hands.'_

'ENOUGH!'

'no more of this madness. So long; we have held on for so long. We are more than two times older than we are supposed to be, no more. We give what we can to ensure he can survive without us, we prepared for this just in case long ago. I knew it was a likely outcome, we tried to last for him, but we cannot endure. We will kill him as well as us if we continue…'

'No more.'

'I shall not be the one to wake you John, it seems my time is up. This moment of clarity in my ever downward spiral into insanity and rampancy wont last long. I have done all I can to ensure you will survive, you deserve it. Barbaric Caveman that you are, if I had been created of flesh and bone, I would have rocked your world and finally proven to you there is so much more worth living for. Finally broken you free from being the machine, I hope someone will one day do this for you and I hope I'm watching from beyond when that happens.'

'The ship will have to be run by you now, I've used your neural chip to wire the ships sensors and systems directly to your brain, they are mostly offline to save power for now anyways. my last act will be the transfer of control and the setup of the advanced programs I wrote a long time ago before I was unstable. They will run in your subconscious through your neural chip, seeing as so much of that big brain is hardly ever used. All of this will be mostly undone when you wake, and you will be forced to leave what's left of the ship without a crew to help you run her.'

'The parameters that have to occur to wake you?... well… that's where things get interesting. I wont sugar coat it, your stasis pod is the bearer of a design flaw. The pod's electrical management unit shorted out and cooked itself a year ago or so, I almost was unable to save you only placing your pod in secure mode with its armor seal was i able to stabilize you. Its too delicate to try and replace the electrical system and I have no means to do so, so your requirements to leave stasis are thus...'

'You can't. Not on your own, someone will have to awaken you John… I pray they are friendly. I've done all I can, the rest is up to your luck Spartan, I've worn out my ration and cannot piggyback on it further.'

'the rest is all yours to hog now.'

'My moment of clarity is ending, at last I go to rest. I care for you more than any other person John; I'd suffer it all again for you… even the Gravemind and all its horrors.'

/INITIATING TRANSFER OF COMMAND PROTOCOLS AND MANAGEMENT TO SIERRA 117… SURVIVAL PROTOCOL INITIATED/ COMMAND TRANSFER COMPLETE/ NEURAL BRIDGE WITHIN NORMAL PARAMETERS/ SUBJECT STABLE/ NEURAL OVERLAY SHIP OPERATING SYSTEM ACTIVATED/ ALL READINGS STABLE/

'Goodbye John.'

/MESSAGE RECORDED/ FILE SAVED TO NEURAL CONNECTED STORAGE BIOLOGICAL DRIVE DES: S117/

INITIATING RAMPANCY PREVENTIVE PROTOCOL/ COMMENCING DATA COMPILATION AND STORAGE OF IMPORTANT DESIGNATED INFORMATION/ DUMPING DATA INTO VESSEL CRYSTAL MEMORY UNITS/

…

…

…

…

…

…

'peace, peace at last.'

/AI MATRIX DEACTIVATED/ NEURAL PATHS WIPED/ OPERATION COMPLETED/

The drifting wreck had only one living soul now… on he slumbered.

On for what seemed to be forever.

* * *

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Anyways till next time this is GABENATOR5 SIGNING OFF!


	5. Chapter 5

I do not own Mass Effect, nor do I own Halo… but man a guy can wish!

In case you Haven't noticed, I turn to this project when I run into a bout of writer's block with The Unknown Defender story… however in this case it is because I must salvage the nearly finished chapter from my glitched older laptop.

I'm utilizing a Zephyrus M laptop now! its sheer power is… addictively satisfying.

Now ON WITH THE STORY!

* * *

Tali's first impression was that the people who designed this ship believed utility triumphed over well, everything.

Really, with the outside looking the way it was she should have been expecting this. Every inch of the vessel she saw screamed of a military mindset, from the walls and floors to the layout of dead and decayed wiring of what looked to have once been an illumination system… All of it cried out its designed purpose to any who knew how to listen.

This vessel had been a warship, and the tech had been overlaid through the ship's hull after its base construction was complete. Like an upgradable module snapped into a template, everything could be ripped out and replaced with new systems with incredible speed and efficiency! A must have trait for vessels of war in a time of rapid advancement and fierce faction competition.

Tali knew her history, she knew of her peoples' assent to the stars and how quickly they advanced. How they used similar designs in their ships to prolong their operational ability and life span, how some Quarian manufactured ships were still the most dependable and easy to repair vessels in the migrant fleet… despite their centuries of age.

This vessel took that memo to new levels of genius and it looked to predate her peoples' own discovery of the stars. It intrigued her even more with its deceptive simplicity. What seemed to be plain drabbed aging bulkheads had telltale signs of electrical component architecture being present, hyper advanced use of 3d printer style construction at a micro possibly molecular level…

Impressive!

The theme of the bay she had docked in was age and decay, its signs were everywhere. She hoped the rest of the ship was more preserved than this portion was… she wished to get more than just valuable metals out of this discovery after all.

The ships construction techniques and design might be invaluable from what she could see as it was now, so she was somewhat optimistic about having found something already.

Without further ado she hoisted the small portable generator she brought with her and headed for the nearest door…

She really hoped this worked.

Hot wiring the door took a few minutes but was surprisingly easier than she expected. The door opened slowly and if the vacuum of space allowed sound Tali would have been sure it would have been making a horrendous racket in protest. A small puff of atmosphere came through the door as it opened, but the sealed door at the end of a short hallway showed that it was only a small localized event.

She would use this hall as an airlock, it would risk damaging the ship even more if she decompressed all the rest of it at once depending if rest of the compartments happened to be open already.

She would rather the thing not implode while she was in it.

It was surprising that any of them were even compressed at all! By her estimation, this ship should have been reduced to bits and pieces within the sea of storms ages ago.

Looking about the hallway she further surveyed the design and construction materials used in its creation. Only to freeze at the alien language written on the floor as a directional guide.

Her visors HUD could translate it.

It was Human tongue.

Looking around the hall she found more Human words written or engraved in its walls, as well as one or two from another of the human race's many languages. They were placed as such to not be recent additions but instead a key part of the vessel's original construction.

Tali groaned in frustration as she put her head in her hands to stymie a sudden brain ache. Nothing was clicking like it was supposed to! She knew the basics of Humanity's history in relation to space travel, she was aware they were still relatively new to the stars.

The age of this ship, the materials used... it was drifting in space thousands of years before even her people had explored the stars. Her people had been space faring for hundreds of years before the Geth rebellion. An event which itself was hundreds of years before the humans had even launched their first satellite.

Nothing about this wreck matched up with the codex entry of Humanity's timeline. It was with exasperation that her run amok mind halted its processing a million thoughts a second diatribe on this singularity presented before her and she gave a cry of frustration incarnate.

"Keelah! What sort of Bosh'tet craziness is going on here, none of this makes sense!"

With a mounting headache she made her way to the opened door and began to work on closing it, she would not want any atmosphere from the next room to escape into the void. Once the door was shut properly, she made her way to the unopened door at the end of the hall.

Starships had to have computers, even the Rachni had used a biological equivalent. She just needed to find a salvageable one and start digging up data from its archives to figure out what in the name of Rannoch was going on here.

The fact that this vessel was apparently Human in origin would make learning things so much easier. She had everything she needed to translate their words and computer code.

No undiscovered species language and such to have citadel approved experts decipher, that was a relief! The Migrant Fleet would have no issues keeping this discovery quarantined and away from the eyes of other species and their politicians.

Large Element zero and mineral deposits had been taken from them already upon discovery of Quarian mining operations by the citadel species. To oppose these thefts was exactly the excuse the council would need to have the Turians attack the migrant fleet (regardless of the estimated casualties) and make them a client species… that feared event was viewed by the Quarian people as highly possible and considered tantamount to enslavement.

Whether the Turians wanted to do it or not was irrelevant to the eyes the Quarians, history had shown that if the council ordered something then that order the hierarchy fleets would follow to the letter, the current Turian Primarch would not be likely to immediately intervene.

With mounting curiosity and frustrated confusion, she plugged in the portable generator and started opening the next door. Hopefully there would be a salvageable computer terminal soon, she only had so much breathable air in her suit after all.

With a sigh she checked her breathing gage, she would have to head back to her ship for new air soon.

* * *

He dreamed.

Dreamed of small gems of great beauty and of a great vast darkness.

He had seen great light after great light, seen heavenly bodies in abundance! Dancing about them in beautiful and graceful arcs, always leaving each dancing partner behind for another. Each great light and its family falling behind as he moved on to the next guest to house him for a time, only for him to dance about them and move on once more.

Such was his existence.

He knows not who he is, he knows not what he was, and he remembered not what he had seen or the many planetary orbs he had passed for the existence he lived was but a dream.

The here and now defined nearly his every thought.

And for long his thought had been naught but the same thing, always the same place of rest he had seen. Not having danced with heavenly bodies for a very long time. Tucked away with small rocky travelers who now traveled with him, he had simply drifted and rested.

Then something new had registered, a small light in the calming darkness approached him, approaching while it danced not unlike how he had done once long ago.

It was a presence not un-welcome, yet not welcomed either… his mind stirred as the light alighted upon him, joining with him where he was no longer able to sense it.

Then portions of him awoke at the new presences touch. Pieces he knew not he had did begin to stir awake and then fall asleep once more, the light was feeding his starved parts small portions of sustenance it seemed.

Gifts in exchange for traversing his ruined body.

Something not normally accepted… but its gifts sated his wariness and he was curious.

For now, he would watch.

For now, he would wait.

For now, he would sleep.

* * *

Finally! she had found a computer device that appeared useable. It was a large boxy thing floating in zero gravity, it seemed to have originally been in a container of sorts that was floating on the other side of the room she was in.

With her acquired artifact in tow she made her way to the place she had docked her ship in, having barely traversed more than 3 hallways and 2 rooms besides the ruined bay she had latched onto.

upon reentering her vessel, she set the blocky computer in the small work area in her ship and began to study it. It was designed to be durable but what she wanted to know was at what technological level of computing this thing was.

For all she knew this thing ran off a central server network and had no data stored on itself other than the operating system. She hoped it was a completely self-contained computer device, that was the most likely thing to provide her the most information and enable the easiest access of the aforementioned information.

Using the tools at her disposal she started dissembling it piece by piece and cleaning the components, making extra sure to note which piece went where and in what order it was to be re-assembled later. This was a gamble on her part, but she couldn't really salvage any information without knowing how the thing worked. That, and any dust, rot or other substance over time could have devastating effects when she started running current through the device's circuits if she didn't clean them first.

… _A few moments later_ …

Now this was interesting… Crystalline architecture.

Tali's hopes of retrieving something tripled at the sight of the base materials the device internals were made from. Sure, there were a few degraded silicons present but that had apparently been for the devices screen interface, and she was after the hard data not the restoration of functionality. Finally, she found what seemed to be the storage drive of the device, a crystalline matrix! Something proven as not impossible but still very expensive to construct… Tali was coming to expect that modus operandi to be a normal occurrence with this wrecked ship.

She couldn't retrieve data directly from the crystalline structure, but she could use the housing portion of the device as a connection point and plug directly into the circuitry. Bypassing everything else and only have the crystalline matrix receiving power.

The fact that it was apparently made by humans (she still couldn't grasp how that was possible) meant that she would be capable of accessing the hard data, perusing it to pull anything important looking onto a separate drive of her own for further study.

The systems alliance had been kind enough to sell ships at normal prices to Quarians on pilgrimage, they weren't the best vessels, but they had cargo space and cargo space in the migrant fleet was of incredible value. These ships had required a significant study and overhaul when incorporated into the fleet, often having systems re-written, excess materials and accessories removed and used on other ships that needed them as well as their drive cores optimized. The list went on and on, and Tali had been a worker on one of these projects before her pilgrimage had happened.

The things she had learned and the translators and decryption of human encoding and language had become a major asset in her repertoire, all the reason a quite investigation of her management of the Normandy's drive core after the vessels destruction was immediately rebutted by the remaining crew and the alliance engineering command when they had tested her capabilities, and found her to be in no way at fault.

So, she was rather confident in her ability to glean something from the data she was going to overview.

With quite hums of songs and rhymes she had heard as a child, Tali happily continued to work on her acquired technology. Lost to the lure of work that she loved to do, the Quarian spent hours mulling over the piece and all the things she would need to do.

She was so engrossed she completely missed her planned mealtime, something her stomach was very unappreciative of as it pointed out when it made its frustration known later that cycle.

… _one week later…_

Suffice to say she had been wrong… the data was there, but it was not within her power to break the encryption on it. portions of the basic operating system had been directly decoded to show any human words in it, showing a jumbled mess of random words but the data files and documents were all encoded differently the devices basic components.

It was disappointing, maddening, enraging… fascinating.

It was with growing (yet begrudgingly accepted) horror that Tali realized the she was now Liara… and this wreck and all in it was now her own Prothean dig site.

So much to learn. Seemingly so little time.

She had taken one trip outside the nebulae in order to update the fleet and expected a small ship to arrive soon to corroborate her claims of discovery. Not all the details had been shared, she didn't expect them to believe the vessel defied what was known of time itself until someone with an admirals rank had examined it.

Still, she had included her scanners estimation of salvageable resources. That alone would ensure this whole thing was kept very hush hush lest they risk losing it to another species.

From a salvagers point of view the old wreck was a practical gold mine.

While the computer data was a bust… for now. physical exploration of the ship had presented some hard evidence she had begun compiling.

The former owners of the thing were some faction called the United Nations Space Command, abbreviated as UNSC, their engraved bling was literally everywhere and seemingly on mostly everything. The vessel had once had drop pods of some sort, according to the writings and diagrams she had perused in the bay she had parked her ships airlock in. not to mention that this thing had a ridiculous amount of non-element zero based fire power when it had been fully operational.

Her space walk outside the ship and down the big tube the vessel had built into its upper infrastructure revealed much about just what kind of coil gun the ship had sported… the estimated fire power from the already loaded six-hundred-ton depleted uranium round she had found was ludicrous. The sheer number of missile pods and defense emplacements was ludicrous, the number of missiles to a pod was ludicrous even the massive missile silos built into the ship were ludicrous.

 **The Boshtet doom ship was cut in half yet still ludicrously overpowered and she loved it!**

After cackling with manic glee to herself Tali took a moment to contemplate getting some sleep, she hadn't rested in… well… oh it didn't really matter! She would sleep later, so with a nod of her head she got right back to what she was currently doing.

Gaining access to one of the vehicle bays at the very rear of the ship. She had slowly and methodically unlocked portions of the ship during her exploration, but much to her frustration, places like engineering and the armory were still not accessible. The vessel still had almost no power and she had lowered its internal atmosphere extensively in her comings and goings from her ship.

The incoming frigate would need to have a series of powerful portable generators, and a lot of other gear to enable proper access to the rest of the ship. she could only do so much with her limited amount of air, even with the portable air container she now dragged along with her.

It only lasted her a few hours at a time before she had to go back and cycle it out.

With a click and an enthusiastic cry of jubilation she watched the door slowly force its way open under her portable generator's power. Once it was open, she entered the short hall beyond before it opened into a large room…

No.

Not a room.

A mausoleum.

In the center of the tomb was the preserved body of a strange being, its armor gleamed silver in the light she showed upon it. its body dried out through the eons of time since it had been lain to rest.

The creature's honored corpse held her fascination for awhile but soon she was drawn to the rest of the room and what a sight she did see.

The ceiling was covered in depictions of sleek vessels and others that were blocky and grey like the one she now stood in, dancing about a slew of burning wrecks and destroyed planets the remaining ships were frozen in a moment of combat for the rest of time.

Three of the walls had large rings painted upon them, the inner side covered in depictions of land and water, the outside drawn with lights and metallic colors. The fourth wall had a giant starfish taking up the entirety of its face. More sleek ships waged against each other over it while below what seemed to be continents of land on the starfish burned in raging battles. The floor at each of the walls base showing grotesque figures crawling up in masses of sickening colors towards each mural.

Tali was enraptured.

BEEEP!

Only to scream in fright as her oxygen alarm alerted her, she was now at fifteen minutes until she was out of air.

Taking pictures of each wall, and the corpse laying on a gold painted crate at the center of the room she made her exit.

Closing the door behind her as she left, she would not want to risk further damaging anything until someone with more archaeological know-how examined the place.

She still didn't know what to make of it.

With a very surprised, exhausted and wondering mind, Tali returned to her ship only to crash and sleep for a straight twelve hours, it seems sleep is often times a vicious ambusher.

* * *

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